There are no more ‘bare’ Obamacare counties in the entire country

But state officials nationwide barely get to celebrate the fact that all the marketplaces are filled.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., listens to a question while speaking with the media, June 27, 2017, in Washington. CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The Ohio Department of Insurance announced Thursday that CareSource will sell Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans in Paulding County, officially marking the end of the health law’s empty counties problem. Every person looking to buy coverage on the ACA marketplace in Ohio and nationwide will have at least one health insurance option.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has been tracking the state of counties that were at risk of having no insurer in 2018 at some point since February 2017. On Thursday afternoon, the map — once riddled with orange dots, to indicate no insurer participants — is now gray:

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Monday evening that “dozens of counties” across the country had no insurer on the marketplace. The remarks were false. At the time of his comments, only Paulding County, Ohio was without an insurer. The bare county problem has been a talking point among Republicans who say the health law is imploding. Obamacare is not imploding. There are valid concerns and criticisms; namely, the limited insurers participation.